Great Britain has announced a team of twenty athletes for the 2024 World Aquatics Championships in Doha headlined by eight-time world champion Adam Peaty.
Peaty returned to international competition at the end of last year racing all three stops of the World Aquatics Swimming World Cup, and in Doha will again line up against the People’s Republic of China’s Qin Haiyang in what will be one of the most highly anticipated match-ups of the 2024 championships.
Qin Haiyang burst onto the scene in Fukuoka in the absence of world champion Peaty, sweeping the breaststroke events and becoming the first male athlete to complete the 50m, 100m and 200m treble in any stroke at a World Aquatics Championships. While Haiyang broke Zac Stubblety-Cook’s World Record in the Men’s 200m Breaststroke, the 24-year-old couldn’t knock off Peaty’s world marks in either the 50m or 100m and therefore the stage is well and truly set in Doha as the two fastest male breaststrokers of all-time face off for World Aquatics Championships gold.
Joining Peaty in Doha will be reigning world champion Matt Richards and Tom Dean, the pair going one-two in the final of the Men’s 200m Freestyle in Fukuoka in a race decided by just 0.02 seconds.
Fellow Fukuoka individual medallists Duncan Scott and Ben Proud will return for Great Britain, alongside Lauren Cox who broke a seven-year drought in Fukuoka by becoming Great Britain’s first female individual medallist at a World Aquatics Championships since Jazmin Carlin and Siobhan-Marie O’Connor’s bronze medals in Kazan back in 2015.
Proud will race at his seventh World Aquatics Championships in Doha having first competed at the 2013 World Aquatics Championships in Barcelona at the age of 18. The two-time world champion touched third in the 50m Freestyle in Fukuoka behind a rejuvenated Cameron McEvoy, and the journeyman is again expected to line up against McEvoy in the 50m Freestyle as the two 29-year-olds to go head to head.
Fukuoka relay medallists Lucy Hope and Anna Hopkin have also been named in the team for Doha as Great Britain chases both World Aquatics Championships gold as well as Olympic relay qualification.
Joe Litchfield and Max Litchfield, who became just the third set of brothers to represent Great Britain in swimming at the same Olympics, will again reunite in Doha with the older of the pair Max making his first international appearance at a World Aquatics competition since 2021.
When announcing the team for Doha, British Swimming Performance Director Chris Spice said the 2024 championships were an important competition for Great Britain as they aim for further success at the Paris Olympics.
“Our swimmers and staff are preparing for Doha as a crucial part of our build-up to Paris,” said Spence.
“This is a great racing opportunity on the world stage and will be a serious test of our swimmers’ preparations and work over the winter months as they will still be in heavy training throughout the meet.”
Defending World Champions (individual)
- Matt Richards, Men’s 200m Freestyle
Current World Record Holders (individual)
- Adam Peaty, Men’s 50m Breaststroke (25.95), 2017
- Adam Peaty, Men’s 100m Breaststroke (56.88), 2019